This Likely Would Have Rated Lower Had I Read The Print Rather Than Listened To The Audible. As the title of this review says, my five star rating here is because, listening to the Audible form of the book – and thus not having access to see what, if any, bibliography it offers – there is little here to objectively deduct stars from. Yes, this book is more a loose collection of essays. Yes, the author is almost as present in the book as anything he is writing about – damn near to the point of being more a memoir than any reporting on anything about the supermarket or its supply chains. Yes, there is a lot of woke, activist drivel that at some points is easily as thick as the pig shit the author slopped through at one point in the narrative. But for what it does show, and admittedly the very conversational style (including multiple F-bombs, for those that care about such things)… this book is actually fairly solid. At least in the Audible form, where I can’t see if the author bothered to have any documentation other than his own personal interview and anecdotes. So give the Audible a listen, at least. It is read by the author, and it works quite well. And then maybe go find some better sourced, arguably better (ie, more objectively) written books exploring the topics covered here. Recommended.
PS: I think the biggest takeaway from this book, for me, is that I am going to try to find and try some Slawsa. Read the book to find its story. 🙂
This review of The Secret Life Of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr was originally written on March 3, 2023.